This disclosure relates generally to imaging and printing multi-functional device systems or image reproduction machines, and more particularly is directed to systems and methods that scan and deliver a document according to different criteria.
People can utilize laptops and handheld devices to create documents while on the go, traveling, transitioning from one place to another, working in remote environments away from home, or from a variety of different environments. But until recently, printing and/or scanning those documents could be tricky. Handheld devices, such as mobile phones, PDA's and the like, for example, often have scaled-down operating systems that do not always have built-in printing or scanning capabilities. Laptops can print, but only if the user can find a printer, connect to it and install the right driver. Other alternatives are not always as feasible, such as saving a document to disk and visiting a copy shop, which is not always conveniently located. This can be even more challenging when a user wants to scan a document and deliver the scanned document electronically to a recipient whom may not have the ability to print the scanned document.
Mobile printing is a generic term for products and services that let people print documents when they are away from a traditional network or a local printer. Usually, mobile printing is wireless. The service may use Bluetooth or 802.11 networking (both of which use radio waves) to communicate. Some older handheld devices use infrared signals, similar to the signals most TV remote controls use.
Many problems are inherent in using mobile devices to print or receive scanned documents. PDAs, for example, often use scaled-down versions of programs, and sometimes their operating systems do not include print capabilities at all. In order to print from many PDAs and smart phones, a user must first download printing software. That software has to efficiently process documents so the print job doesn't overwhelm the device's memory. In addition, documents printed from handheld devices don't always look like they do when printed from desktop or laptop computers. This is because handhelds don't have enough processing power to handle print output very well. The printing software often has to simplify or modify the document for printing. Also, since handhelds have less memory than laptops it can take longer for them to process print/scan jobs. Further, some mobile printing programs work a little differently where the device sends documents to fax machines rather than printers. The process works similar to faxing over email. The user selects an email message that has a document attached and then enters a fax number.
A need exists to efficiently and effectively scan documents and enable portable devices to print the scanned document without transferring a soft copy of the document via email, via an office personal computer (PC) or via a removable memory such as a memory card.